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Abstract:

This thesis focuses on one of the most fascinating, and neglected, figures in
Angevin Ireland. Forged in the crucible of a frontier society, the career of Hugh II de
Lacy was in some ways comparable to those of other second-generation AngloNorman
colonists grappling for power in a contested land. It is the singular aspects of
de Lacy's story which are of most value to the historian. Hugh's earldom of Ulster
was the first comital creation in Ireland, an honour made all the more intriguing by de
Lacy's relatively modest beginnings. Ulster itself was unique among Ireland's great
feudatories, connected to other constituent polities of the Irish Sea world by trade
routes, political alliances and kinship. De Lacy was twice a rebel against the king of
England, and spent a decade crusading against dualist heretics in southern France.
A study of the earl of Ulster, utilising a wide range of source material, is also a
touchstone through which wider themes and questions pertinent to thirteenth-century
Ireland can be explored. In examination of Hugh's written acta, we come to know
more about how magnates in Ireland viewed themselves; how others perceived them;
and how identity might be consciously shaped. The cohesiveness of the settler
community in Ireland is also discussed, along with the factors that could make or
break aristocratic relationships. Some assumptions about the development of royal
power in Ireland are challenged, and de Lacy's interactions with the English crown
shed light on how nobles won, lost and regained favour with the Angevin Lords of
Ireland